[314] See Unfermented Bread.
FLOWER DEW (F. J. Weber, successor of Rau, Bamberg). A flat bottle with the name of Rau moulded on it; its gross weight is more than 80 grammes, but it contains scarcely 22 grammes of a nearly colourless but slightly yellow fluid, consisting of a pleasant aromatic solution of oils of bergamot, lemon, orange flowers, and rose in strong spirit.
FLOWERS. Syn. Flores, L. These beautiful and fragrant ornaments of our gardens and our dwellings are too highly esteemed by all classes of the community to require anything in favour of their cultivation to be said here. Our remarks will, therefore, chiefly refer to their collection, improvement, and preservation.
‘Full’ or ‘double flowers,’ or those in which the internal organs become petals, are so much more beautiful than the ‘single flowers’ of the corresponding species and varieties, that their production, with tolerable ease and certainty, has long been a desideratum with both the professional and amateur florist. Various plans have been proposed having this object in view, among which are the following:—1. The use of the best seed only, but not before it is at least 3 or 4 years old. 2. The selection of the outer row of seed only, and its careful preservation intact for at least 2 seasons before sowing it. We are assured that this method is particularly successful with dahlias. 3. The removal of the plants to a shady situation as soon as the flower-buds begin to develop themselves, and stinting them with water and nourishment for a few weeks. In this method a few only of the buds are permitted to mature; the rest being snipped off with a pair of scissors as early as possible. 4. The use of small pots and a scanty supply of water until the flowers are partly developed, when water is supplied in abundance, with or without the addition of a little liquid manure.
To hasten the blooming of flowers, it is a common practice with some gardeners to grow them in as small pots as is consistent with their healthy existence, and carefully to avoid transplanting them to larger pots, for several weeks before their usual time of blossoming. A plant on the point of flowering, if transferred to a larger pot and a richer soil, immediately commences making roots and leaves, whilst the embryo flowers either wholly decay, or their development is checked until the usual season of their production has passed over.
The following liquid has been used with great advantage to promote the vigorous growth and the early flowering of plants:—Sulphate or nitrate of ammonia, 4 oz.; nitrate of potassa, 2 oz.; sugar, 1 oz.; hot water, 1 pint; dissolve and keep it in a well-corked bottle. For use, put 8 or 10 drops of this liquid into the water of a hyacinth glass or jar, for bulbous-rooted plants, changing the water every 10 or 12 days. For flowering plants in pots, a few drops must be added to the water employed for them. The preference should be given to rain water for this purpose. The fluid sold under the name of liquid guano may be used in the same manner.
Flowers may be preserved in a fresh state for a considerable time, by keeping them in a moist atmosphere. When growing on the parent stem, the large amount of evaporation from the surface of their leaves is compensated for by an equivalent proportion of moisture
supplied by the roots; but when they are plucked, the evaporation from the surface continues, while the supply of moisture is cut off. To supply, in part, this loss of moisture by evaporation, has arisen the almost universal practice of placing flowers in water; but their mutilated stems possess a far inferior power of sucking up fluids to that of the roots, and thus their decay is only deferred for a time. To preserve them more effectually, or at least to render their existence less ephemeral, we may surround them with a moist atmosphere, by which the loss of water from the surface of their leaves will be reduced to the smallest possible amount. “It is now eighteen years ago since we first saw, in the drawing-room of a gentleman, in the hot dry weather of the dog-days, flowers preserved day after day in all their freshness by the following simple contrivance—A flat dish of porcelain had water poured into it. In the water a vase of flowers was set; over the whole a bell-glass was placed, with its rim in the water. This was a ‘Ward’s case’ in principle, although different in its construction. The air that surrounded the flowers being confined beneath the bell-glass, was kept constantly moist with the water that rose into it in the form of vapour. As fast as the water was condensed it ran down the sides of the bell glass back into the dish; and if means had been taken to inclose the water on the outside of the bell-glass, so as to prevent its evaporating into the air of the sitting-room, the atmosphere around the flowers would have remained continually damp. We recommend those who love to see plenty of fresh flowers in their sitting-rooms in dry weather to adopt this method. The experiment can be tried by inverting a tumbler over a rose-bud in a saucer of water.” (‘Gardener’s Chron.’)
Another method by which some flowers may be preserved for many months is to carefully dip them, as soon as gathered, in perfectly limpid gum water, and after allowing them to drain for 2 or 3 minutes, to set them upright, or arrange them in the usual manner in an empty vase. The gum gradually forms a transparent coating on the surface of the petals and stems, and preserves their figure and colour long after they have become dry and crisp.
Yet another method (given in the ‘Pharmaceutical Journal’) is as follows:—“A vessel with a movable cover is provided, and having removed the cover from it, a piece of metallic gauze of moderate fineness is fixed over it, and the cover replaced. A quantity of sand is then taken sufficient to fill the vessel, and passed through a sieve into an iron pot, where it is heated with the addition of a small quantity of stearin, carefully stirred so as to thoroughly mix the ingredients.